November 27, 2008

BBC Newsreports that the Nigerian food and drug agency says that 25 children aged between three months and four years have died after taking a contaminated teething syrup. It has been suggested that the syrup was contaminated with diethylene glycol. This chemical is used as anti-freeze and an engine coolant and may have triggered kidney failure in the children. Follow the link to find out more.

November 26, 2008

The Guardian reports this startling fact. The article continues that "Nearly all hospitals are failing to meet hygiene and cleanliness standards set by the government to prevent superbug outbreaks, inspectors say today. Most of the breaches are not serious, but the Healthcare Commission warns that only consistent and comprehensive controls in all NHS trusts will ensure that infection rates for MRSA, Clostridium difficile and other hospital-acquired infections continue to fall".

Although many of the hygiene issues are not deemed serious this is a cause for concern however "At three out of the 51 trusts (around a third of the total) where unannounced spot checks took place, inspectors found serious breaches of the government's hygiene code". Only five trusts were found to comply.

November 25, 2008

The Guardian reports that officials in California have unveiled ambitious plans to turn the
San Francisco Bay area into one of the
world's leading centres for electric vehicles. This area of San Fransisco is home to 7.6 million people.

The plan is to replace one million cars by 2015 and it will involve charging points being placed at strategic points." If it succeeds,
the strategy will see billions of dollars poured into a power
infrastructure that will turn the region away from fossil fuels and
persuade millions of people to switch to green transport technology". Follow the link to find out more.

November 23, 2008

After the several blog posts on bacteria, I found this post of interest too. It concerns Salmonella contamination of sand. Barfblog reports that"In May, 2008,
children's playgrounds were closed on Sydney's Northern Beaches after a
rare form of salmonella, paratyphi B var java, normally linked to
tropical fish, made dozens of toddlers seriously ill."

The sand was replaced at a cost of $140,000 but recent testing has confirmed the same Salmonella has returned.

We don't really think that we can become contaminated with Salmonella from a beach, but there are a whole range of sources as well as foods.

November 22, 2008

Andrew Wadge, Chief Scientist of the Food Standards Agency has posed this question on his blog.He states that an "unusual form of the food poisoning bug E. coli that's appeared
on a cattle farm in northern England and has been shown to be resistant
to a particular family of antibiotics, which includes penicillin".

He comments that the term "superbug’
is generally used for bacteria that are resistant to a range of
antibiotics, such as MRSA. Resistance to antibiotics is important
because it can make bacterial infections caused by these ‘superbugs’
more difficult to treat. However, antibiotics aren't generally used to
treat food poisoning caused by E. coli so this organism doesn't represent more of a risk to the public than other food poisoning E. coli strains."

"There have been no human cases of infection with this particular
strain, but it is an unusual finding as only two other incidences of
this type of bug have been found before, both outside the UK".

So how did it get there? That is the million dollar question. The Farmers Guardian reports that the organism E. coli O26, has a type of resistance called ESBL,
making it unsusceptible to a family of antibiotics that includes
penicillins and cephalosporins. Government vets found that 19 of 20 calves and 3 of 40 cows tested positive.

A Defra spokesperson said that E coli bacteria are killed during the milk pasteurisation process and the bacteria can be controlled with standard cleaning and disinfection processes.

Marler Blog has reported that in the US "more than 40 percent of packaged meats sampled from three Arizona chain stores tested positive for Clostridium difficile .... [thus] raising the possibility that the bacterial infections may be transmitted through food."

The original article states that the US Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have commented that "the
connection between the presence of C. diff bacteria and infection has
not been established and that there’s not enough evidence about food
transmission to warrant public alarm. There
are no documented cases of people getting Clostridium difficile
infection from eating food that contains C. difficile, .... However, because C. difficile has been found in some retail meats, that possibility does exist.” The article continues that: "Contamination ranged from 41 percent of pork
products and 44 percent of turkey products to 50 percent of ground beef
samples and more than 62 percent of samples of braunschweiger, a type
of liverwurst. Nearly
three-quarters of the C. diff spores were toxinotype V, a type linked
to illness in pigs and calves and, increasingly, in humans."

In March 2007, Canadian researchers identified that "Clostridium difficile was isolated from 12 (20%) of 60 retail
ground meat samples purchased over a 10-month period in 2005 in Canada.
Eleven isolates were toxigenic, and 8 (67%) were classified as
toxinotype III. The human health implications of this finding are
unclear, but with the virulence of toxinotype III strains further
studies are required".

The Report from the Chair of the Northern Ireland Food Advisory Committee published on 17th September 2008 (Report) stated that there is a need for further information on Clostridium difficile especially whether it food plays a part in spread as a carrier system.

For more details follow the links. There is lots more research that needs to be undertaken before there is definitive conclusions on C. diff. but I will keep the blog up to date with developments.

November 20, 2008

Following my Nuffield Scholarship I have been following the progress of the Cave review.

The interim report by Professor Martin Cave into competition and
innovation in water markets was published yesterday. The report sets out
Professor Cave’s recommended measures for increasing retail competition
in the water industry which could benefit customers and the economy by
up to £600 million over the next 30 years and deliver considerable
environmental and service improvements.

The Cave Review recommends:

the
introduction of legislation to allow 28,000 then 162,000 large public
and private sector organisations in England and Wales to choose their
water and sewerage retailer for the first time.

retail divisions of water companies should be made legally independent from their network business.

a series of changes to incentivise new water and wastewater suppliers to enter the market.

These
recommendations aim to reduce costs and increase service levels for all
customers; support the more efficient use of water; and help companies
to better meet the challenges facing the industry including climate
change, containing costs, rising consumer expectations, and water
efficiency.

Launching the interim report, Professor Martin Cave said:

“Extending competition will deliver real benefits for customers and the
environment through lower prices, more choice, higher service levels
and the better use of water. These changes could benefit the economy
by around £600 million over the next 30 years.”

The final report and further recommendations will be delivered in spring 2009.